The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Bath and North East Somerset (now)
Parish church
As implied by the place-name, the village is a principal settlement in the valley of the Chew, a tributary of the Avon — which it joins at Keynsham, 10kms NE. As a wealthy possession of the bishops of Bath and Wells before and after the Conquest, it was called ‘Chew Episcopi’ or ‘Bishops Chew’ between 1062 and 1548. Occupying a site where the river is turned from a northerly to an easterly course by the massive Limestone of Dundry Hill to the N of the village, and almost surrounded by tributary streams joining the Chew from W and N, Chew Magna is the focus of a bewildering web of lanes: road communication is possible in any direction (even over Dundry Hill, 150m higher), although the main route nowadays will be the B3114 or the B3130, which two roads meet in the village, the former running S past Chew Valley Lake towards the A368 between Bath and Weston and the latter running approximately E-W between the A37 and A38 trunk roads. The B3114 is also the route one would take to cross Mendip to reach Wells. Railways hardly come into the picture (except that nearby Bristol, of course, is an important hub). The GWR branch line between Bristol and Radstock closed in 1959; the station nearest Chew was Pensford (4kms E).
Now that local industries (wool etc.) have gone, leaving however plenty of local pastoral and dairy farming, Chew Magna is described as a dormitory for Bristol (the city centre being only about 10kms N) and Bath (about twice that distance E). Also, since the construction of Chew Valley Reservoir/Lake between 1950 and 1956, the area has become a focus for leisure activities. The lake dam is less than 2kms S of the village.
In common with most settlements in this valley (or, indeed, probably anywhere in this area), Chew Magna rests on Triassic bedrock, Mercia Mudstone (formerly called Keuper Marl).
The church, about 300m N of the river, occupies quite a spacious site at an altitude of about 40m above OD. It consists of a chancel with N and S chapels and a N vestry, an aisled nave with N and S porches and a W tower. A good deal of 12thc material has been used in the construction of the curious S doorway, indicating the presence of a church here at that time; otherwise the earliest fabric is the 13thc S arcade, and most of the remainder is Perpendicular in style. Bequests were recorded in 1443 for the N aisle and in 1541 for the tower. The vestry was added in 1824. There is also a 12thc font.
Redundant parish church
Remarkably sequestered in the upper valley of the Cam Brook, the tiny hamlet consists of little more than church, manor house and farm. Although only 1.3kms W of the main A37 (connecting the English Channel coast with Bristol, 15kms N) at Temple Cloud, Cameley is remote. (It should be noted, however, that the parish extends E across the A37, to include Temple Cloud.) The narrow lane running along the valley is an exclusively local road. Before motor vehicles, the area would have been less isolated; if one follows the stream from its source, 2kms NW of the hamlet at the N end of White Hill, for an easterly journey of about 20kms to its junction with Wellow Brook at Midford soon after one reaches the major river Avon at a point only about 8kms upstream from Bath. The church rests on the ubiquitous Mercia Mudstone (formerly called Keuper Marl) at an altitude of about 110m above the OD.
The church consists of nave with S porch, chancel and W tower. Of these the tower is 15thc, and the remainder is substantially of the late 12thc. Construction is of rubble stone and dressed stone copings to the nave and chancel, with render on the nave N wall, while the tower is of squared but irregular coursed red and grey sandstone with limestone dressings. The church was closed in 1980 and vested in the Churches Conservation Trust in 1981. The dedication to St James of Compostella was noted by Faith (2009), 59-86.
Manor house
Saltford extends westwards from the left bank of the Avon between Bath and Keynsham (7kms from the former and 3.5kms from the latter), on either side of the main A4 between Bristol and Bath. Geologically, Saltford exploits (like many settlements in this area of north Somerset) an unusually large area of limestone bedrock: specifically Blue and White Lias of the Lower Lias division of Jurassic rock. The place-name signifies ‘salty=tidal ford’ although various weirs etc. now prevent the river being so up to this point. The church (q.v.) is at the N edge of the village only 300m from the river and at an altitude of 33m above OD, accompanied by this manor house dating from the Norman period and reputedly the oldest habitation in the country.
The manor house of c.1160 with many later alterations and additions was built by Earl William of Gloucester. The main range is the extent of the original Norman manor with cellarage and first-floor hall with solar to the E and parlour to the W; two two-light windows survive to the N and the E. The front is 17thc, but on entering Pevsner reports that there were huge ceiling beams and a Norman arch. On the E gable is a big carved beast. A second beast was found and is now on the door-hood.
Parish church
Marksbury is a small village in Somerset sited near the Chew valley, about 5.5 miles SW of Bath and 13 miles NE of Wells. The meaning of the place-name (‘boundary-fort’) suggests potentially significant history (Costen, 1983). S of the Avon Valley, E of the Chew Valley and W of Newton Brook Valley, Marksbury is in a historically active area and nowadays part of a favoured, prosperous district either side of the Avon. The bedrock on which the village rests is the Lower Lias known as ‘Blue Lias’. There is a quarry marked on nineteenth-century OS mapping immediately W of the village. One of the site photos, taken from the neighbouring parish of Farmborough, gives a view across the relatively flat land of Marksbury Plain to the church tower and beyond to the hills of Winsbury and Stantonbury. The original settlement lies offset below and to the NW of the A39, which is a long-established route along the high ground.
The church of St Peter therefore would seem originally to have occupied an almost solitary commanding position (at 124m above OD) on the high ground of the ridge, isolated except for its farm close-by on its SW side. The church consists of W tower, nave, N porch and chancel. The church is of late 12thc origin, but mainly dates to the 15thc, and was extensively restored in 1875. The only Romanesque feature present is a 12thc font.